PAID FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE
WHAT IS PAID FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Only 27% of workers in the US have access to paid family leave.1 States can implement policies to provide parents with the time and financial security to stay home with a new child. Paid family leave policies allow employees to take time off work and receive a portion of their salary for qualifying reasons which include the birth, adoption, or fostering of a child or caring for a loved one with a serious medical condition. Paid medical leave policies allow employees to take paid time off to recover from one’s own serious medical condition, which includes childbirth. The most rigorous research to date shows a state policy that provides at least 12 weeks of paid leave for parents who give birth and at least 6 weeks for all other parents with a new child leads to positive impacts.
WHAT PROGRESS HAVE STATES MADE SINCE THE 2020 ROADMAP TO ADOPT AND IMPLEMENT PAID FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE?
5 States Have Newly Adopted Paid Family and Medical Leave Programs
Since October 2020, state progress on paid family and medical leave has picked up steam. Five states (Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, and Minnesota) have adopted paid family and medical leave programs.
- In November 2020, voters in Colorado approved a ballot measure which created a paid family and medical leave program, and benefits became available to families for the first time on January 1, 2024.
- In 2022, Delaware and Maryland enacted legislation that established paid family and medical leave programs.
- Maine and Minnesota enacted legislation that established their paid leave programs in 2023.
- Benefits will become available to families in Delaware, Maine, Maryland, and Minnesota in 2026.
5 New States Began Offering at Least 6 Weeks of Paid Leave for All New Parents
In October 2020, only five states were offering at least 6 weeks of paid leave for all parents to bond with a new child. By October 2024, 10 states were offering at least this length of leave.
- Since October 2020, four states (Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Oregon) began implementing new paid family and medical leave programs that provide at least 6 weeks of paid leave for all parents.
- One state—Rhode Island—initially began implementing its paid family leave program in 2014, but did not provide 6-weeks for all parents to bond with a new child until 2023.
States Considered Equity in Paid Leave Program Design
All states’ paid family and medical leave programs vary in terms of the duration of leave, the portion of workers’ wages received while on leave, and funding mechanisms. Most states designed programs that provide higher wage replacement rates for workers earning lower wages. Because workers who earn lower wages rely on a larger portion of their income to pay for regular household expenses, higher wage replacement rates that ensure all eligible workers can afford to take leave promote more equitable access to paid family and medical leave. States also increasingly designed programs that require both workers and employers contribute to funding paid family and medical leave, rather than through worker contributions only.
- The five states that most recently adopted paid family and medical leave programs (Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, and Minnesota) all offer at least 12 weeks of paid leave for all parents to bond with a new child.
- Four of these states (Colorado, Maine, Maryland, and Minnesota) offer wage replacement structures in which workers with lower incomes receive a higher portion of their wages than workers with higher incomes while on leave.
- Notably, all five states that most recently adopted programs also all evenly split the cost of the program between workers and employers.
States Made Their Existing Paid Family and Medical Leave Benefits More Generous
States with paid family and medical leave programs have continued to strengthen their existing programs, and benefits for families have increased since October 2020.
Duration of Leave: Three states (the District of Columbia, New York, and Rhode Island) increased their maximum duration of leave.
- Lawmakers in the District of Columbia increased the duration of leave from 8 to 12 weeks in 2022.
- In 2021, the duration of paid family leave in New York increased from 10 to 12 weeks.
- The duration of paid family leave in Rhode Island has periodically increased over the years, from 4 to 5 weeks in 2022 and to 6 weeks in 2023. In 2024, Rhode Island lawmakers enacted legislation to further increase the duration of paid family leave to 7 weeks in 2025 and 8 weeks in 2026.
Wage Replacement: One state—New York—increased the percentage of wages a worker receives while taking paid leave. An additional state—California—will do so in 2025.
- In 2021, New York increased the wage replacement benefit for paid family leave from 55% to 67% of wages. The wage replacement benefit for medical leave (called Temporary Disability Insurance in New York) did not change.
- Lawmakers in California enacted legislation in 2022 to increase the wage replacement benefit for its paid family and medical leave program such that workers earning low to moderate incomes will receive 90% of their salary while taking leave, beginning January 1, 2025.
Paid Parental Leave for State Employees Garnered Bipartisan Support Across States
As of October 2024, 27 states that have not currently implemented a statewide paid family and medical leave program offer paid parental leave to eligible state employees. Thirteen of these states, many of which are southern states, started newly offering paid parental leave to eligible state employees since October 2020. States that were already offering parental leave benefits to state employees have also sought to improve the benefit during this time by increasing the duration of leave or covering additional state employees, such as public school teachers.
Private Insurers Can Sell Paid Family Leave Insurance in More States, but the Impact on Access and Wellbeing Are Unclear
A recent and growing trend is an interest in administering paid family leave benefits through the private insurance market. Since October 2020, eight states have enacted legislation to authorize private insurance companies to sell paid family leave insurance.
- In 2022, Virginia became the first state to enact legislation to authorize private insurance companies to sell paid family leave insurance.
- Five states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee, and Texas) followed suit in 2023.
- In 2024, two additional states (Kentucky and South Carolina) enacted legislation to authorize private insurance companies to sell paid family leave insurance.
These private insurance plans often place the cost burden on workers and have few regulations on the type of policy that may be offered. It is also unclear whether insurance companies in these states have begun offering this type of insurance or if businesses have purchased a plan as a result. More data are needed to better understand and evaluate the effectiveness of this approach.
More Research is Needed on Voluntary Paid Family and Medical Leave Programs
Since October 2020, two states (New Hampshire and Vermont) have adopted voluntary paid leave programs. The programs in both states are administered through a private insurance company, and state employees are automatically covered. Private employers and individuals are or will be able to purchase paid family and medical leave insurance through the state’s plan. Because these voluntary programs require private sector workers to opt in, they do not guarantee access to paid leave for most workers in the state.
- New Hampshire fully implemented its program in August 2023.
- In Vermont, private employers could voluntarily purchase a paid family and medical leave insurance policy for their employees beginning July 1, 2024. Individual workers, including those who are self-employed, will be able to purchase individual coverage beginning on July 1, 2025.
More research is needed to understand to what extent these voluntary approaches increase access to paid leave and for whom. Although both programs are new, participation data from the first full year of New Hampshire’s program indicate only 2.2% of New Hampshire workers were covered under the program in 2023.2
For more information on state progress to implement paid family and medical leave, check out the 2024 Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap.
Moving Forward: Continuing the Momentum for Paid Family and Medical Leave
In October 2020, only five states had a paid family and medical leave program which provided at least 6 weeks of leave for all parents to bond with a new child. As of October 2024, that number has doubled to 10 states. Still, fewer than one in three Americans live in a state with a fully implemented state paid family and medical leave program.3
Moving forward, more research is needed to better understand the impact paid family and medical leave programs have on reducing disparities in outcomes for families with young children. Many policy design choices, such as setting higher wage replacement rates for workers with lower-incomes and ensuring job protections benefits for all leave-takers, have important implications for equity and accessibility.
The road to policy adoption in the remaining 37 states without paid family and medical leave may be more challenging, but continuing to build momentum, especially in Midwest and Southern states, will be crucial.
NOTES AND SOURCES
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2023). Employee benefits. https://www.bls.gov/ebs/factsheets/family-leave-benefits-fact-sheet.htm
- New Hampshire Department of Administrative Services and New Hampshire Employment Security. (2024, June 1). Paid family and medical leave annual report: Implementation and year 1. https://www.paidfamilymedicalleave.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt781/files/documents/nh-pfml-2023-annual-report.pdf
- Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center calculations using US Census Bureau, Population Division. (2024). Annual estimates of the resident population for the United States, regions, states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2023 [Data Set]. Retrieved September 11, 2024 from https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-state-total.html
